Weasels in the Attic
Books | Fiction / World Literature / Japan
Hiroko Oyamada
From the acclaimed author of The Hole and The Factory, a thrilling and mysterious novel that explores fertility, masculinity, and marriage in contemporary Japan In three interconnected scenes, Hiroko Oyamada revisits the same set of characters at different junctures in their lives. In the back room of a pet store full of rare and exotic fish, old friends discuss dried shrimp and a strange new relationship. A couple who recently moved into a rustic home in the mountains discovers an unsettling solution to their weasel infestation. And a dinner party during a blizzard leads to a night in a room filled with aquariums and unpleasant dreams. Like Oyamada’s previous novels, Weasels in the Attic sets its sights on the overlooked aspects of contemporary Japanese society, and does so with a surreal sensibility that is entirely her own.
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Author
Hiroko Oyamada
Pages
96
Publisher
New Directions Publishing
Published Date
2022-10-04
ISBN
0811231194 9780811231190
Community ReviewsSee all
"Strange, short and pointless."
Fred
"“We live our lives in the groups we have—in our cities, our countries, even though we didn’t choose them. Know what I mean? We like to tell ourselves it’s love, that we’re choosing our own partners. But in reality, we’re just playing the cards we’ve been dealt.”<br/><br/>Weasels in the Attic is a surrealist social commentary about fertility, relationships, and masculinity. It is split up between three short stories which covers the same group of people as they progress in time. <br/><br/>One of the most prevalent theme is how fertility impacts relationships. It is told through the MC and his wife, who struggle to conceive, and his best friend who marries in the second story and has a child in the third story. <br/><br/>Another minor theme is how the author portrays the relationships between the characters that are involved. In each of the stories, the wife/significant other are the ones doing the bulk of the work, keeping the household running while the husbands/male significant sit around. This definitely seems to be commentary about gender roles in Japanese society.<br/><br/>I enjoyed the themes that were covered, would have loved a little more detail and it tried to cover them in a unique way that was let down by the novella length (around 70 pages). A unique book that if you want to try something different and something short that you can finish in a day, give it a shot"
C C
Cody Crumley